1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope container for high-pressure steam sterilization in which an endoscope is stowed for high-pressure steam sterilization.
2. Description of the Related Art
Medical endoscopes have been widely used in the past. An elongated insertion member of such a medical endoscope is inserted into a body cavity in order to observe an intracavitary organ or the like. If necessary, therapeutic accessories may be passed through a therapeutic accessory channel that runs through the medical endoscope in order to perform various cures.
The endoscope for use in the field of medicine has an insertion member thereof inserted into a body cavity for the purpose of observing an organ. Otherwise, therapeutic accessories may be inserted into a therapeutic accessory channel that runs through the endoscope in order to perform various cures or treatments.
A user may use an endoscope or therapeutic accessories, and want to reuse the endoscope or therapeutic accessories for another patient. However, medical equipment must be cleaned and disinfected after being used for examination or treatment. This is essential to prevent inter-patient infection by way of an endoscope or therapeutic accessory.
In recent years, autoclaving has become a mainstream method of disinfecting or sterilizing medical equipment. This is attributable to the fact that autoclaving is not labor-intensive but is low-cost and that equipment becomes reusable immediately after being autoclaved.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-285103 has disclosed an autoclave for endoscopes that autoclaves an endoscope without adversely affecting the capabilities of the endoscope.
An environment for high-pressure steam sterilization is very severe for an endoscope that is a piece of precise medical equipment. In order to realize an endoscope that withstands the conditions for high-pressure steam sterilization, measures are taken against high pressure, high temperature, and steam. Incidentally, this point is not taken into consideration in realizing an endoscope that is supposed to be reused after being disinfected or sterilized using an ordinary means.
However, as far as an endoscope whose insertion member has a soft part is concerned, since the insertion member is long, the endoscope must be settled in a high-pressure steam sterilizer with the insertion member rounded. If the endoscope is sterilized with high-pressure steam in this state, the soft part of the insertion member is held bent as it is rounded. When the endoscope is used to perform examination after sterilized with high-pressure steam, the inserting smoothness of the insertion member of the endoscope deteriorates due to the bent state of the soft part.